Make a cast of my body

[dolorosa_12]

Thank you for everyone who posted reassuring comments and helpful and interesting suggestions in my last post. My in-laws have been and gone, and are currently sitting at their departure gate at Stansted, and I think a reasonably good — if tiring — time was had by all. Unfortunately I had worked myself up into such a state of stress that I lay awake all night last night until 5.30am, and managed a grand total of forty-five minutes of sleep, so for obvious reasons I've felt as if I were swimming through treacle all day. My grand plans to respond to all your in-depth comments this afternoon are for obvious reasons going to have to be put on hold, and this is therefore essentially a check-in post.

I did manage to drag myself out to the pool this morning and do my usual 1km swim in spite of the lack of sleep, and it helped somewhat, and I'm hoping following this up with a very slow, quiet yoga class with lots of poses close to the ground will help some more, but beyond that I'm just going to park myself under my weighted blanket and try to stay awake until a reasonable bed time.

Miraculously, I did manage to finish one book this weekend — The Oleander Sword (Tasha Suri), the second book in her epic fantasy trilogy inspired by Mughal history and with a f/f romance at its heart. I felt in the past that this series was a real step up from Suri's previous writing, and the second book is itself a step up from the first — I feel as if I've had the rug pulled out from underneath me in the best possible way. I thought I was reading one kind of story, and it's turned out to be something quite different, in a way I find really intriguing. The romance and the two women involved are allowed to be messy and complicated and painful in a way that makes sense for the characters and the very different things that motivate them, but in a way that makes me feel fairly certain that it won't end in death or tragedy. In other words, I'm now avidly anticipating the third book in the series!

I really am incredibly sleepy, so I'm going to leave things there. I hope everyone's had nice weekends!

Comments

[yarnofariadne]

I'm glad the visit went well but sorry you're so tired! I hope you get some good rest.

[dolorosa_12]

Thank you!

[chestnut_pod]

Oh my goodness, may you get good sleep tonight!

[dolorosa_12]

Thank you! I really thought I had better mechanisms for dealing with anxiety now, but apparently not...

[lirazel]

Ugh, I'm so sorry about the stress/lack of sleep, but glad the weekend went reasonably well other than that!

I am really looking forward to reading that Suri trilogy when it is completed!

[dolorosa_12]

Thank you! Last night I slept for nine hours straight, so I feel a lot better today.

I hope you enjoy the trilogy when you get to it — I would assume the third book will be published this year or next year.

[trepkos]

I keenly await your verdict on the Tasha Suri book - if it ends happily, I'll try it! I don't think I would dare swim on so little sleep in case I drowned ...

[dolorosa_12]

I will definitely post about the third book once it's published, so hopefully it will end on a note that makes you interested in giving it a try.

I wouldn't have risked swimming in the sea on so little sleep, but in the pool it felt safe enough — lap swimming in still water is pretty mechanical. The other thing is that swimming generally helps me sleep so I really needed to do it in order to have a better night's sleep on Sunday!